The increase use of automatic pick and place machines for automatically placing electronic components onto printed circuit boards has drastically increased the speed in which printed circuit boards are assembled. However, when it comes to some components, such as multi-turn air wound coils, it becomes difficult for the pick and place machines to center the coils onto the solder claded pads (contact pads having solder placed on the pads) found on the printed circuit board. With conventional straight leaded coils, the coils tend to shift before the domed claded pads are reflowed. Another problem encountered with the straight leaded coils and particularly when placed on top of precladed printed circuit boards, is that the coils tend to tip over during the reflow process.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a conventional air wound coil (inductor) 100 as known in the art. Air wound coil 100 includes two end leads 104 and 106. Coil 100 also includes a main body 102 having a plurality of loops (turns). Leads 104 and 106 are shown placed on top of corresponding connection pads 108 and 110, such as those typically found on printed circuit boards. Leads 104 and 106 are hard to center onto pads 108 and 110 found on printed circuit board 112, especially when the pads are precladed with solder (not shown), as used in conventional reflow processes. Also, as previously discussed, leads 104 and 106 given their straight shape, provide no support for coil 102, prior to the coil being soldered. This causes coil 100 to sometimes tip over during the soldering process. A need thus exists for a coil which can overcome the above mentioned problems.